NHIF cancels tender over irregularities after exposé
The National Health Insurance Fund building in Nairobi. The NHIF has cancelled a Sh6.9 billion tender to provide insurance cover for civil servants and National Youth Service staff after it was irregularly altered.
The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has been forced to eat humble pie and cancel a Sh6.9 billion tender to provide insurance cover for civil servants and National Youth Service staff after it was irregularly altered.
The alteration was exposed in a report published in the Nation on June 8, with NHIF acting chief executive officer Samson Kuhora thanking the paper “for its vigilance”. “We take this matter seriously and are fully committed to correcting any lapses in the spirit of maintaining public confidence in our procurement processes.”
The cancelled Tender No. NHIF/035/2022-2023 was for the provision of co-insurance and facultative insurance services (consortium) for Group Personal Accident (GPA) and Work Injury Benefits Act (WIBA) for the 120,047 civil servants and NYS employees.
Dr Kuhora announced the cancellation in a notice posted on the NHIF website.
“In terms of section 63 (1) (e) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015, NHIF has cancelled the tenders. We take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely for your interest in our tenders and advise that the same will be issued in due course,” the notice stated.
NHIF had issued the tender on May 30, inviting bids for the provision of insurance cover from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, with prospective bidders required to submit their bids by 14 June 2023.
Also cancelled are Tender No. NHIF/033/2022-23 for the provision of insurance brokerage services and Tender No. NHIF/036/2022-23 for the provision of co-insurance and facultative insurance services for group life and final expense insurance services for civil servants and NYS employees.
Others are Tender No. NHIF/037/2022/2022-2023 for provision of emergency road evacuation services for NHIF members, Tender No. NHIF/032/2022-2023 for the supply, delivery and implementation of endpoint solution and email security and Tender No. NHIF/002/2022-2023 for the provision of actuarial services.
Document alteration
While the other tender documents were posted on the NHIF portal and the Public Procurement Information Portal, Tender No. NHIF/035/2022-2023, which had been manipulated, was not uploaded on the portal as required by law.
The alteration of the tender document contravenes the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (PPDA) of 2015, which makes it illegal to make changes to a tender document without attaching an addendum. The amendment affected Part 4 of the tender on technical evaluation, where the parameters for the evaluation of the lead co-insurer were changed.
After the Nation story, Dr Kuhora said that “the Fund has taken immediate steps to address the issue with the intention of ensuring maximum transparency and integrity and to prevent similar occurrences in the future”.
“NHIF has conducted an independent review of the changes made to the tender documents to assess the system, people and process weaknesses that led to the error and to assess their impact on the procurement process,” he said in a press statement.
The fund also indicated that it had engaged with the Insurance Regulatory Authority to advise on the way forward on the matter.
